Tafari Robertson speaks to students sitting-in to protest student body President Connor Clegg.Photo: Expose Texas State

In a case that involves Alex Jones, white tears, a racist Instagram account, an Illuminati-like student body government and the indomitable Caucasian ability to fit itself through loopholes, students at Texas State University in San Marcos have taken over the university’s student center after a failed bid to oust the student government president and anti-reverse-racism activist Connor Clegg.

It all began with a case of so-called racism against whites.

In November 2017, Texas State University student Rudy Martinez wrote an opinion article for the school newspaper titled, “Your DNA Is an Abomination.” In the op-ed, Martinez called for the death of whiteness (not white people, an important distinction),writing:

You were not born white, you became white. You actively remain white. You are estranged from yourself and, in that absence, have been instilled with an allegiance to a country that was never great. One that has continuously attempted to push nonwhites into nonexistence through crusades that have been defended by the law.

In your whiteness, you are granted the luxury of not having to think about race daily. Your heartbeat does not speed up when you get pulled over and find yourself staring at the red-and-blue lights of the fascist foot soldiers we call the police. You don’t leave your home wondering if you will ever come back. You don’t give a damn.

Of course, that didn’t sit too well with a lot of white people, including Connor Clegg, the student body president. Clegg immediately stepped out, not only to condemn this so-called act of racism against white people, but also to call for the firing of Martinez, the opinions editor and the newspaper’s editor-in-chief because .... you know, Clegg was against racism and oppression of any kind.

But before writing his statement, Clegg forgot to delete his Instagram posts in which he called Asians “Kim Jong Il” and insinuated that he was exacting revenge for Pearl Harbor by photobombing the “assholes” and “Asian fellows.” Clegg also forgot to mention that before he threatened to fire the newspaper staff and defund the student paper, he hadn’t spoken to the Student Senate body before he posted to the official student government Twitter account.

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“Rudy’s face and information were being posted all across campus. He was getting death threats,” Tafari Robertson, the former president of Texas State’s Pan African Action Committee, told The Root.

“Connor and the university president did nothing to help the situation and they actively made it worse by putting a target on Rudy’s back, who had every right to write the column, regardless of how you feel about it. Especially because it’s an opinion column,” Robertson continued.

Clegg also worked against efforts to hire an immigration attorney for undocumented students, resisted naming the university a sanctuary campus and gave at least one interview to the far-right Infowars of Alex Jones fame in his capacity as president.

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You know ... white stuff.

As a response to Clegg’s demands, students organized an effort to impeach Clegg. When the articles reached the Student Supreme Court, whiteness reared its ugly head again.

Now it was the students’ turn. Finally, they would have their chance to get rid of Clegg. While whiteness almost always wins, the students studied the rules of the Senate procedure. They knew that—even if their impeachment attempt failed—their voices would be heard and that anyone who supported Clegg would have to go on record by voting against his ejection.

The students arrived at the meeting knowing that they needed 28 senators to be present at the hearing and vote. Whatever happened, they would be satisfied with their effort.

Of the ones who were absent without an excuse, or who actually came to the meeting but left before it started, all but two were white, according to several students who spoke to The Root and our own research.

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“I think they have low regard for their position and the students as a whole,” said Robertson. “So if a friend tells them, ‘Don’t show up to impeach Connor, it’ll all blow over,’ they were OK with that.”

But the students decided to go find the missing senators.

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When the elected representatives refused to represent the students, the students felt they had no choice but to either let whiteness win or protest.

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As of the writing of this article, students are still occupying the student center, saying that they will stay until their demands are met.

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Maybe this time, whiteness won’t be allowed to move the goalposts like it usually does. Maybe someone at Texas State University will step in and enforce the rules by which the campus is governed. Maybe Connor Clegg will be ousted before his term is over. Like many people, I am watching with interest and rooting for the students.

But if I were a betting man, I’d put my money on the undefeated champion.